A story published in the current issue of Time
Magazine discusses how difficult it can be for someone who is single to
participate in the Mormon church -- an organization which is so heavily
invested in marriage. Here is what the story has to say.

Mormons believe that God is
married and that they can achieve divinity by marrying and having
children. So couples in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(LDS), as the denomination is formally called, often marry young. Their
vows, when sealed in a sacred temple ceremony, are pledged not just
"until death do us part" but for eternity. Parents and children gather
weekly for Family Home Evenings, to study Scripture, pray and bond over
other activities. Even wards, or congregations, are organized around
familial units. Which is why Michael Mohan, a lifelong Mormon, says,
"Sometimes I feel a little bit out of place." At 40, Mohan is single.
"The church," he says, "is kind of set up for people who are married."

But that setup is beginning
to pose a challenge for the leaders of the church. Like other Americans,
Mormon men and women are marrying later. "This tendency to postpone
adult responsibilities ... is surely visible among our LDS young
adults," said Dallin Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles, one of the highest levels in the LDS hierarchy, in a speech
earlier this year. "The average age at marriage has increased in the
last few decades, and the number of children born to LDS married couples
has decreased." While the church says it does not keep age statistics
for marriage, in Utah--which is more than 60% Mormon--the median age at
the first wedding, though still the lowest nationally, went up by about
a year in the period from 2000 to 2003, to 21.9 years for women and 23.9
for men, after remaining flat since 1985. Today, more than 30% of
Latter-day Saints are singles over 22 (including those widowed or
divorced), a figure explained in part by the rising number of adult
converts and a generation of the more culturally assimilated offspring
of Mormon baby boomers.

The church has tried to do
some adjusting itself. Since the 1970s, it has ministered to single
members through singles wards, congregations specifically for unmarried
18-to-30-year-olds. In the past five years the number of those
congregations has jumped to more than 500, from 300. But there are only
around a dozen singles wards nationwide for those over 30, so most who
haven't wed by then move into family-oriented wards. Jody Morrison was a
mainstay of her singles ward outside Milwaukee, Wis., running the
women's group and organizing substitute Family Home Evenings. But after
she turned 31 in October 2004, she transferred to her area family ward,
where she is the only unmarried person her age. "I did go through a kind
of mourning period," she says. In the past year, Morrison has integrated
into her new ward by teaching Sunday school and making new friends.
Still, she now spends Family Home Evenings home alone.

Some family wards sponsor
programs for their single members, but those can be small groups filled
with older divorced and widowed people, particularly in areas where the
Mormon population is low. Marie Wilson, who converted to the LDS faith
10 years ago, is the only never married member of the singles group in
her Winston-Salem, N.C., ward and, at 35, the youngest by at least a
decade. Her church friends, she says, "can't relate because most of them
have been married since they were in their early 20s. I've lived alone
my entire life."

Finding a
spouse remains the priority. Internet dating sites, like LDSHearts.com
are popular. But the church prefers to encourage more traditional
courtship. When Oaks, the Mormon leader who fretted about the rise of
singles, declared in May, "It's marriage time," imploring young people
to lay off group activities and date more, single Saints across the
country took heed. Even in Manhattan--with a vast support network of
unmarried Mormons--Jeffrey Jackson, 27, says he and friends in his
singles ward immediately put "more focus on one-on-one relationships,"
proposing more dates and trying to consider their female friends as
potential wives. Many wards hold dances regularly. Wilson sometimes
travels two hours to attend them in Raleigh, N.C. Michael Mohan went to
one in Denver on a recent Friday and another in Colorado Springs, Colo.,
the following night. He was excited to see how well members encouraged
one another to connect at the Saturday affair. He did his part too,
securing phone numbers from four women that night. "I'm not going to
stay single forever," he vows.